Multiple Universes Hypothesis
by shadowglove
Summary: While at first Sheldon dismisses the new neighbors, he quickly begins to wonder if they aren't spies sent to spy on his research, which is quite flattering. Chloe and Lois on the other hand are only trying to blend in...and protect the universe of course
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or The Big Bang Theory.**

This is the first segment in a planned Trilogy...and this story is meant to set up the friendship that develops between Chloe & Lois, and Sheldon, Leonard, Penny, Raj & Howard.

A/N: My FIRST Big Bang crossover...go easy *covers face with hands* Sheldon is terrifying to even contemplate writing...much less actually writing!

A/N2: So I've been contemplating writing a Chloe/Sheldon SV/BBT crossover for FOREVER, but didn't have the inspiration...UNTIL I realized that Allison Mack provided the voice for Power Girl in Superman/Batman Public Enemies...AND that the BBT boys had a brief (unaccredited) cameo in one of the Power Girl comics! So, yep, I'm using that as my justification for this! lol

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There were new neighbors.

The old neighbors had been an unaccommodating couple who'd closed the door in Sheldon's face and refused to acknowledge his presence after he'd been thoughtful enough to bring them the Good Neighbor Contract to their door the day they'd moved in. They'd also played metal "music" absurdly loud (they'd obviously been half deaf-there was no other explanation for listening to anything at that volume) and when said so-called "music" wasn't blaring far above the socially acceptable norms, their vocal altercations had disturbed the genius' tranquility. They'd been so jarring even his bowel movements had been put out of whack.

Hopefully these new neighbors proved to be less of a waste of oxygen.

"Dude, have you found out at least if one of the new neighbors is a chick?" Raj leaned forwards, glancing between the roommates. "Who knows, we might get lucky and there'll be another Penny here."

Howard smiled lecherously at the thought, obviously losing himself to his debase, perverted mind.

Leonard appeared quite uncomfortable as he squirmed in his seat. "I think they're guys...I don't know."

A look of utter disappointed flashed on Howard's face. "What makes you think that?"

"There hasn't been a moving van or anything like that around." Leonard cleared his throat as he pushed his glasses up his nose, pursing his lips, face appearing as if he was either trying to contemplate something very hard...or was horribly constipated. "From what I've managed to learn about women, they have hoarding tendencies and take everything they own with them when they move."

Sheldon stopped typing, reviewing the document on his computer's screen before starting to print it.

"Frak." Howard pouted, leaning forwards, resting his chin on his fist. "How am I supposed to find the future Mrs. Wolowitz like this?"

Raj and Leonard shared looks.

Sheldon ignored them, getting up and going towards the printer, watching as the pages printed.

The door opened and Penny strolled in, grinning brightly. "Hey guys!"

"What's with the cheesecake, Penny?" Leonard asked, eyeing the dairy product with both suspicion and nervousness.

Then again, given his lactose intolerance, Leonard had a reason to fear.

"It's a housewarming gift for the neighbors." Penny declared, grin wide. "It's the neighborly thing to do you know, go over, welcome them to the apartment." She nodded. "It's important to get to know your neighbors you know."

"You're dying of curiosity to see them, aren't you?" Leonard seemed a mixture of amused and worried...and he still appeared a bit constipated.

"Yes!" Penny admitted.

Stapling the papers together, Sheldon grabbed a pen. "Come then Penny, since we are both going to the same place I suggest we go together."

Howard looked up at that. "You're going to the neighbor's, Sheldon?"

"Of course I am." The genius sniffed, holding the multiple-paged document close. "I will not make the same mistake I did with the previous tenants. Before they are able to get comfortable in a routine of chaos and disorder, disrupting my peace and tranquility, I will lay matters straight. Right away."

Leonard's eyes widened before he palmed his face with a sigh. "Not the Good Neighbor Contract again."

"That is _exactly_ what it is." Sheldon declared.

"Sheldon, honey..." Penny started.

Not of the patience to deal with this, Sheldon turned and left. He took the steps at a careful yet determined pace, finally making it to the next landing and walking towards 3B, knocking.

Penny hurried out after him, and to his annoyance so did the rest of his inferior-minded friends...even the fond acquaintance was there.

The door opened and before him stood a member of the female species, wearing far too little clothes considering the below-usual temperature, her eyebrow raising slightly as she gazed at the people outside of her door. "Can I help you?"

Sheldon shoved the contract out towards her. "Sign this."

That eyebrow raised further as the girl looked down at the contract. "What's this..." her gaze returned to him. "And who the hell are _you_?"

Before Sheldon could answer Howard had weaseled between them, grinning up lavishly at the much taller female. From the knowledge of Howard's 5'4 stature Sheldon could estimate that this female was a good four inches taller, leaving her equal to Raj's height. "How can you ask who I am? Don't you recognize me? I'm the man of your dreams."

"_Howard_!" Penny growled at him.

"I'm good with my hands." Howard flashed a toothy grin at the brunette, ignoring Penny for once. "And my heads."

The brunette seemed to be contemplating physical violence, clutching the Good Neighbor Contract tightly in her hands and bending it slightly, much to Sheldon's displeasure.

She hadn't even read it yet and already she was being destructive.

"Lo? What's up?" Another voice declared as a blonde female of Howard's stature appeared in the doorway as well, giving everyone wary looks.

The brunette shoved the contract into her hands. "They came to give us this." She sneered at Howard. "And be utterly _gross_."

The blonde raised an eyebrow before lowering her gaze to the Good Neighbor Contract.

"And we brought cheesecake!" Penny's voice had risen an octave higher and was somewhat piercing, causing Sheldon to wince as his ears hurt. The waitress pushed Howard out of the way before smiling apologetically at the girls. "I apologize for Howard. Ignore him. I'm Penny and I live in 4B." She shoved the cheesecake into the brunette's hand, continuing to smile brightly as she motioned towards Sheldon. "This is Shel-."

Sheldon cleared his throat.

She flinched. "_Dr._ Sheldon Cooper," she motioned to Leonard. "Dr. Leonard Hofstadter, Dr. Rajesh Koothrappali...and Howard Wolowitz."

The blonde continued to browse through the Good Neighbor Contract, face blank.

"We're here to welcome you." Penny continued. "So, welcome."

The brunette made a face before sighing and giving Penny a little smile. "Thanks for the cheesecake, uhm, would you all like to come in?"

"No." Sheldon shook his head.

The brunette frowned at him.

So did Penny. "What Sheldon means to say is that we wouldn't want to intrude on you."

"That isn't what I meant to say." Sheldon frowned at her, wondering how Penny always misunderstood him when he was being quite direct. "I mean that I have no intention of entering the premises. We do not know the sort of diseases that might-."

"_Excuse me_?" The brunette snarled.

Leonard flinched. "Please excuse Sheldon, he doesn't, uh, have the best social graces."

Sheldon opened his mouth to refute that.

"Did you prepare this?" The blonde was halfway through the contract, her green eyes raising to his curiously.

Sheldon nodded.

"It's...impressive." She mumbled.

Sheldon sent the others a superior smile before turning to her. "Of course it's impressive. I am of a higher intellect than the average human and my work is perfection."

"I'll give this a look." The girl replied, seeming to shock Sheldon's friends and acquaintance as she said this. Though why her being reasonable should surprise them was a confusion. "You're from..." her gaze went to the document. "Apartment 4A."

Sheldon nodded once more.

"As I said, I'll look it over and then get back to you on it." She declared before giving the others a little smile. "It was nice meeting you all, but he's kinda right, this place isn't in the best shape and it needs a thorough cleaning before anyone can visit."

Having accomplished what he'd come from, and deciding that these neighbors seemed much more tolerable than the last, Sheldon left without so much as a by-your-leave. He could hear Penny and Leonard saying something, but he ignored them, putting the neighbors out of his mind.

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"Can you believe the _nerve_ of that asshole?" Lois Lane grumbled as she scrubbed the floor of the apartment they now owned in Pasadena. She wore plastic gloves, her hair was up messily, and her face flustered with anger as she took out her annoyance on the floor. "He-he-_ugh_!"

Chloe Sullivan made a non-commital noise as she held the "Good Neighbor Contract" in one hand, and was cleaning the windows with the other. Some of these clauses were a little ridiculous and restrictive, especially considering that this man was a tenant and not the landlord, but there were clauses in here that she not only approved of, but wanted the power to implement whenever they were of use to her. Of course, there would be some need of amending before she went to apartment 4A, but she figured she could easily make this work for their benefit. They didn't know how long they'd be stuck in this place, but if it was for longer than hoped they would need some things they could fall back on.

"And the tiny _jerk_!" A stress-cleaner, Lois scrubbed fiercely. "I could squash him with my bare hands and he-!"

Chloe turned to the last page of the contract and read through the contents before placing it down on the table. She then allowed herself to listen to Lois' rant as she continued to clean the windows, wearing the same heavy-duty gloves. "I'll call in some professional cleaners to give the whole place a complete clean, especially the sofa...and we can buy new mattresses because I do _not_ plan on sleeping on someone else's bed." She shuddered, remembering the result her test with the black light had given her of many different parts of this apartment-but especially of the two bedrooms.

Dear god, seriously...it'd seemed as if the asshole who'd lived there before them had been _trying_ to spurt all over the damn place like a territorial beast!

"And, dammit, what sort of _weirdo_ comes up to total strangers and gives them a legally binding _contract_?" Lois wanted to know, turning towards Chloe with a shake of her head. "And then he has the _nerve_ to declare that this place isn't sanitary!"

"It isn't." Chloe pointed out. "Case in point, black light in bedrooms."

Lois flinched at the memory. "How is that even _possible_ anyway? Was he _aiming_ for the ceiling?"

Chloe shrugged, although she was curious about that as well.

Finally, Lois sighed and deflated, admitting what truly had her so short tempered. "Are you sure they can't trace the money back to us? We're in enough trouble as it is."

"I took so little from each account that no one will even notice it's gone." Chloe promised, still a little nervous herself due to the crime she'd committed in a rather public cyber cafe. Of course, she knew what she was doing and highly doubted anyone would notice the small amount of money she'd taken managed to siphon out of countless bank accounts (the small amounts quickly adding up to a much larger and substantial amount which she'd split into six different banks in six different countries) but even if someone noticed she'd covered her tracks well. There was no way anyone would be able to trace the transactions back to her and Lois.

It was a win-win situation. The people never missed the small amount of money she took and while Lois and her were stranded here they had a ridiculously large amount of money that they could use to get what they needed to survive until they were rescued.

She ground her teeth at needing to be saved _once more_, but there was nothing she or Lois could do about their situation and could only hope that Clark, Oliver and the others found a way to get them.

"Now that we have our papers, and once this place is semen-free, I'm gonna get a job." Lois surprised her by declaring.

"Why?" Chloe frowned, giving her older cousin all her attention. "You don't need to. With my highly illegal tech-savvyness we're set for _life_."

"I know...but if I'm not doing something I'll go insane. I have to do something so I don't feel so...useless." Lois whispered, her hazel gaze betraying her emotions. "I need to be busy doing something, no matter _what_ it is."

As one, their gaze went to the closet, knowing what was hidden in there.

"No, it's not a good idea." Chloe shook her head. "Not here. Not now."

Lois sighed and nodded. "You're right."

Chloe eyed her cousin before getting up and walking towards her. "It'll be okay." She knelt down next to the brunette and hugged her, holding on tight as Lois embraced her. "They'll find us and everything will be fine."

"I just wish there was something we could _do_." Lois whispered.

"We wait." Chloe responded. "And we have to be smart about it. We need to blend in, not bring any attention to ourselves."

Lois nods. "So beating the tiny creep is out of the question then, huh?"

"It would probably be best." The blonde agreed with a smile.

Lois sighed, obviously put out.

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"I can't believe it." Howard sat down, apparently in heaven, as he gazed in front of him in a daze. "The future Mrs. Wolowitz is living on the floor beneath you." Raj leaned over and whispered something in his ear, causing Howard to make a face. "The both of them of course!"

"Howard, you're a pig." Penny groaned, shaking her head at him in disgust.

"Oh Penny, you don't have to be jealous." He grinned at her. "You can always be my mistress."

Raj whispered in Howard's ear once more.

"That's right!" Howard's eyes widened, apparently very distressed. "We never got their names!"

"Well, the short one called the brunette "Lo" so there's a hint there. Maybe her name's Loraine, or Loralee or...uh...Lola." Penny tried, tapping her bottom lip, apparently quite intrigued with this new little mystery.

Sheldon didn't understand why they cared so much. Why did his peers always fixate on the most unimportant details?

Shaking his head, he returned to his comic book and drowned out their inane prattle.

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**TBC**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or The Big Bang Theory.**

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The people were cleaning the apartment and Lois watched over them to make sure none of the cleaners went near the closet. She seemed to be in a better mood now that the apartment was getting the professional treatment it needed. The brunette had gotten a kick of taking the workers into one of the darkened rooms and showing them what was hidden to the plain eye by use of a black light, and the chorus of cries of shock and horror from inside had made Chloe smile in amusement. Now the workers understood why she'd made sure their boss had them bring the strongest non-lethal chemicals they owned and made sure their schedule was clear for the rest of the day.

Even now as they worked, the crew would send the bedrooms little looks before shivering in horror.

Chloe left Lois in charge of the operation and went up the small flight up stairs to the floor above, where apartments 4A and 4B were located across from each other. She gazed from one to the other, said gaze resting on the elevator with the yellow tape across its front and a sign warning OUT OF ORDER. The blonde shook her head and turned towards 4A, knocking on the door, waiting until it opened to find a surprised Dr. Hofstadter staring up at her.

"_Hi_!" His voice went high.

"Hello Dr. Hofstadter." She gave him a small smile.

"Leonard, please."

"Leonard." She gave him a slight more genuine smile now. "Is Dr. Cooper here?"

Surprise widened his gaze before they fell on the contract cradled against her chest. He flinched visibly. "I'm sorry about Sheldon and his crazy ideas. You really don't have to humor his-."

"No, I'm not 'humoring' him at all." Chloe assured. "Is he in?"

Seeming unsure, Dr. Hofst-_Leonard_-nodded and opened the door further so she could come inside.

Chloe entered 4A and the first thing she noted was how clean the place was, everything obviously had its place, nothing was lying around, the books and such were all arranged in a certain way. Somehow, this seemed more of the work of a man who'd given neighbors contracts and not Leonard's. Chloe's gaze then went to the whiteboards filled with different scientific equations written on them, and Dr. Cooper stood with a marker in his hand eyeing the equations pensively.

Something about those equations caught Chloe's attention, bothering her.

"Sheldon, we have a visitor." Leonard closed the door behind her.

"Not now Leonard." Dr. Cooper didn't even look away from the whiteboards. "I know that these equations are way over your head, but a man of my superior intellect-."

Chloe's eyes narrowed as she examined the equations...what exactly was bothering her?

"Sheldon, I think this has to do with your contract."

"Oh!" Sheldon turned his head rapidly, blinking when he saw Chloe. "I assume you've signed on the dotted line?"

"No, actually." Chloe went towards him, eyebrow raised. "I've read over your "Good Neighbor Contract" and while there are many agreeable clauses some were overbearing, unreasonable, and others subject to necessary alterations."

Dr. Cooper's mouth opened and closed a couple of time before he turned to her completely, eyes narrowed. "I _assure_ you that-."

Chloe thrust the contract into his flabbergasted hands. "_I_ assure you that my assessment is correct. I've added my own clauses, edited the ones I found workable, and deleted others. This version of your contract is both mutually beneficial and superior."

Dr. Cooper's eyes narrowed further, his lips pursing as he retrieved the contract. "I highly _doubt _that you could have come up with a better contract than I already have."

"Sheldon, play nice." Leonard sounded tired behind her.

"I'm one of the brightest minds of our times, Leonard, if not _the_ brightest." Sheldon declared as he browsed through the contract, lips continuing to be pursed with displeasure. "I highly doubt that this female-."

"Is that string theory?" Chloe interrupted Sheldon, walking passed him as she went towards the whiteboards, not noticing the surprised looks Dr. Cooper and Dr. Hofstadter sent each other at that.

"It _is_." Sheldon raised an eyebrow at her. "You have a working knowledge of string theory?"

"And this...has to do with the m-theory." Chloe was ignoring them by now, talking to herself as she gazed at the equations, her brain, which had always been advanced, had been enhanced by Brainiac's stay within her, and she was able to compute the calculations quickly and easily, though not as impressively fast as she'd been when she'd been the SuperComputer's host. Her sharp green gaze went from each of the whiteboards, computing what was within and piecing them together in her mind before her eyes widened and she turned to look at Dr. Cooper in surprise. "This is a multiple universes hypothesis in the making. You're trying to prove the existence of the Multiverse."

Sheldon's mouth opened and closed a couple of times in shock.

"You mean you _understand_ that?" Leonard squeaked, pushing his glasses up his nose.

"It's basic quantum mechanics." Chloe shrugged.

"_Basic_-?" Sheldon gasped in horror. "I'll have you know that my work is _groundbreaking_!"

"Oh. Wow." They were _a lot_ further back than she'd previously thought. "Well, the reason you might be stuck is the fact that _this_ equation is wrong." She tapped the equation in question before realizing that she shouldn't be betraying just how much fringe knowledge she actually knew. "Give the amended contract a look over." And before they could say anything she was out of the door and hurrying down the stairs.

Sheldon's outrage and comments about her being 'ridiculous' for even _'suggesting_' that he was...was interrupted as he presumably actually _looked_ at the equation she'd pointed out, probably realizing she was right.

Oliver was going to chew her ear out about that once he found out.

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Sheldon stood shell-shocked as he gazed at his whiteboard, eyes widened as he realized that the girl had been _right_. He'd _told_ Wolowitz that his incessant chattering while Sheldon tried to work would distract him, and right before him was the proof. He'd written the equation down wrong, and because of that all of his following calculations had been horribly off! Wolowitz was going to get a strike for this! All the time he'd spent stressing over why his calculations were so horribly off, feeling such utter frustration and fearing that that Noble Prize would never be his-and it was all _Wolowitz_'s fault!

He hadn't even _thought_ to check back his previous equations and calculations because he knew there could be no error on his part, and who knew how much longer he would have been in this frustrating conundrum had the imprudent blonde not zeroed in immediately onto the problem.

"That was unexpected, huh?" Leonard broke into the silence, coming to stand next to Sheldon.

"For her to not have only understood these equations but know them enough to be able to _correct_ them she can be only one of two things Leonard." Sheldon didn't take his gaze from his whiteboards.

Leonard turned towards him curiously.

"Either she's a spy sent to keep an eye on me and my work," Sheldon was seriously considering this one. "Or...she's possibly a...Homo Novus."

Leonard's face seemed to undergo a series of muscles spasms before he finally palmed his face and cleared his throat. "You didn't consider _Leslie_ a Homo Novus when she fixed your equation that time."

Sheldon's face went sour, remembering how that _woman _had _dared_ touch his whiteboard. "Leslie Winkle is _not_ a Homo Novus. And she was _lucky_! AND it was only two symbols. Not a whole _equation_."

"Well, when _Dennis Kim_-."

"We do _not_ say the D word in this apartment!" Sheldon declared heatedly, sneering at the memory of the little insufferable one. "And that little North Korean weakling could _never_ be a Homo Novus! _Sure_ his intelligence was higher than the norm...until a member of the female Homo Sapien species started letting out pheromones and he showed his true primitive colors. Not only did he _fail_ to maintain his intelligence ratio but he is now nothing more than that girl's pleasure tool. Really we must pity him. What sort of life he must lead, as the sex slave of that woman?" He shook his head. "Thankfully it is a fate you will never experience first hand."

Leonard sighed, running his fingers through his hair. "I thought you considered yourself to be the only Homo Novus?"

"It makes sense that nature would create _two_." Sheldon made a face at this thought, very uneasy with how to process this option and where to go on from it. "I'll have to examine her toes and lateral incisors of course, before running a series of more thorough and intensive experiments before coming to a conclusive conclusion."

"Sheldon...don't do anything crazy." Leonard's voice had taken on that whiney quality Beverly always spoke about over Skype or the phone. "She and her cousin have only just moved in we don't want to _scare_ them. And anyway, it'd be good for Penny to have some girls around."

Considering Leonard was merely functioning on that primitive level where he deludedly supposed that his fruitless efforts to make Penny happy would _actually_ give him the chance of achieving coitus with her, Sheldon ignored him.

"Leonard," he declared, holding the marker tightly. "This _clearly _calls for a series of scientific experiments. Any scientist worth his grain of salt can see that."

"_Sheldon_..." Leonard made up his face, appearing constipated once more.

Sheldon was going to have to examine Leonard's daily fiber intake if this kept up.

"You can't just make our new neighbor the guinea pig for one of your experiments!" Leonard scrunched up his face.

"Oh but I _have_ to!" Sheldon begged to differ. "What if my previous assumption of being the only Homo Novus is incorrect? What if she's one?" He looked all around him, remembering that the alternate option was that she was a spy and she'd already been inside his home which meant there could be bugs everywhere. He hurried to the television and turned it on to provide background noise before tiptoeing back to Leonard and hissing softly. "What if there's a whole _colony_ of _Homines Novi_ out there somewhere? What if I actually have intellectual _peers_ Leonard and not just others of slightly greater intelligence than average whom I choose to associate myself with?"

Leonard's eye began to spasm as he developed a tic in his face. "Or she could very well be the only other Homo Novus out there." His expression seemed almost manic. "You'll have to mate with her to further the species."

Sheldon made a face. "Homo Novus is _superior_ to Homo Sapien. We have _transcended_ that common _hominid_ affliction."

"Then how will you further the race?" Leonard saddened Sheldon sometimes with his lack of vision.

"Why _test tubes_ of course!" Sheldon tsked, shaking his head at his friend. "Her ovum and my sperm. That would solve the population problem without us having to resort to such barbaric methods of fertilization such as coitus."

Leonard just looked at him and shook his head.

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The crew had worked until late into the night, and by the time they'd left the apartment had smelt of cleaning products but also of cleanliness. It was a good feeling, being able to walk barefoot in your own apartment, and soon they'd be able to buy new furniture, get more clothes, appliances, and make this apartment as much of a home as they could until it was time to leave. The cousins enjoyed their stay in their apartment fully for the first time, even despite the fact that they'd had the cleaners take out the mattresses and sofa and such leaving them with the ground to sleep and sit on until they were able to go shopping tomorrow. They'd stripped away every bit of filth that'd been left behind by the old tenants and could now truly make this place theirs.

The cleaners would be returning tomorrow to finish up the work, but all in all they were in a clean environment once more.

The girls lay on the floor, cuddled in the sleeping bags they'd had with them when they'd arrived.

"So, I was thinking that while I want a job, I don't want anything too stressful." Lois curled up in her sleeping bag, letting out a yawn. "I just want something that I could use to pass the time with, you know? Like maybe waitressing or something else like that."

"You'd make a terrible waitress." Chloe sniggered good-naturedly. "Remember your stint at the Talon?"

Lois flinched and then laughed. "You're right. Waitressing and I don't mix."

"You could always work at a store." Chloe pointed out. "Maybe while we're out shopping we can keep an eye open for any place with a Hiring sign out front."

"I like that game-plan." Lois nodded, gaze going to the closet. "We're going to have to find a safer place to store that, you know."

Chloe's smile melted off her face as her green gaze joined her cousin's. "I'll think of something."

Lois sighed. "What if we're stuck here? What if they never come for us?"

Chloe reached out and found her cousin's hand, squeezing it. "When it's safe they'll find us."

"I don't like being the weakest link." Lois closed her eyes tightly.

"You're not the weakest link, you're far from that." Chloe squeezed tighter.

"Yes, I am." Lois opened her troubled eyes, gaze meeting her cousin's. "Ollie is Gadget Boy, Smallville and Lana are the super-powered lovers, and you were one of the smartest people I knew even _before_ you became host to an alien SuperComputer and it enhanced your smartness even more. Me...I can kick people while wearing heels. That's as far as I go."

"Do _not_ say that!" Chloe snapped, sitting up as she stared down at her. "You're brave and loyal and cunning and just as good at snooping as I am. If you hadn't been there I'd be dead right now. And I couldn't do this...any of this...without you."

"Yeah, you could." Lois whispered, yet her smile was more genuine as she sat up as well. "You just wouldn't have as good a time as you'll have with me here to liven things up."

The blonde smiled brightly, leaning over to hug the brunette tightly.

The statuesque woman held the petite one just as tightly. "Who knows? We might even find ourselves some guys. God knows we failed to find any who weren't in love with, and immediately drops us for, Lana Lang."

"It served us right, we always knew Clark would never stop loving her." Chloe sighed softly, letting go of her cousin. "And who exactly are you suggesting we find for ourselves here?" She waggled her eyebrows playfully. "Don't tell me Mr. Wolowitz managed to charm you."

"Oh _hell_ no." Lois made a face, scrunching up her nose in disgust. "That little pervy bastard." She pulled a dark strand behind her ear. "The indian guy though, I thought he was cute."

"He never said one word." Chloe murmured.

"Exactly! I like that in a guy!" Lois grinned mischievously.

Chloe barked out laughter. "You're so evil!"

"And for you..." Lois tried to think it over. "Uhm...shortie?"

"Most of them were short." Chloe reminded.

"Hoofendberg." Lois tried.

"_Hofstadter_." Chloe rolled her eyes. "And _no_. Leonard is _not_ my type."

"Then you'll have to get all 6 feet and 2 inches of 'weird and annoying' then." Lois shrugged.

"Dr. _Cooper?" _Chloe made up her face. "Don't get me wrong, he's got something about him that's weirdly attractive...but _no_. Just _no_. Never gonna happen."

"Fine." Lois sighed. "You're left with no other choice then. You can have Wolowitz."

Chloe shrieked in horror and launched herself at Lois.

The girls wrestled on the floor and laughed, for this moment in time forgetting the many dangers they were hiding from.

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**TBC**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or The Big Bang Theory.**

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The next day was spent going from one store to the other, buying all the things they'd need to make the apartment a home. Shopping was therapeutic, and they might have bought a little more than was necessary but they enjoyed the time and that was what mattered. Lois bought a couple of game consoles and controllers and games in general, reminding Chloe of the many nights she'd spend the graveyard shift with Chloe in the basement of the Daily Planet while Chloe had been interning there. The two girls had passed the time playing video games, and apparently that was the brunette's idea once more. Lois' natural talent with video games made her a challenge to beat, and while Chloe herself wasn't much of a gamer she thrived on a good challenge.

They'd shopped all day, making several trips to the car and back, and now that the sun had set they were coming back from yet another trip, walking down the streets.

"Hey, look! It's a comic book store." Lois grinned, pointing towards the store. "I wonder what sort of comics they have here. Do you think they have Warrior Angel?"

For a beautiful, sexy, popular sorta girl, Lois could be somewhat of a geek.

"Why don't we put these bags in the car and then go check it out?" Chloe motioned towards there their car was parked, and froze when she noticed the group of six thugs surrounding it, obviously trying to break in.

Her eyes widened and she turned to Lois, finding the black mask already covering her face...the mask Lois had _sworn_ she'd put away.

"HEY!" Lois yelled, shoving the bags in her hands into Chloe's before hurrying towards the car. "Get the hell away from there!"

The men turned towards Lois in time for her to punch the closest thug.

"_Shit_." Dropping the bags, Chloe reached into her bag. Pulling out her own mask (which _she_ had sworn she'd put away) and sliding it, on the blonde hurried forth as the gang, armed with crowbars, attacked Lois.

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"You are _never_ going to believe this!" Someone yelled as they entered the comic book store. "Two hot, masked chicks are beating the _shit_ out of some thugs!"

Howard grabbed his phone and raced outside, just like the others.

Sheldon didn't look up from his comic book, unable to understand the barbaric things the Homo Sapiens around him found fascinating. Violence for one. And violence which featured violent women also captivated them. They were a brutal, savage, lower species, and it was times like these in which he mourned the fact that he was a human living amongst apes.

It made him want to find another Homo Novus out there, someone who could understand his disgust with hominids.

"Come on Sheldon! We have to see this!" Raj declared, absolutely giddy as he hurried after Wolowitz.

"Aren't you coming?" Leonard asked in surprise when he realized that Sheldon wasn't following.

"And why should I?" Sheldon questioned, feeling quite disappointed because while Leonard was most definitely inferior to him the tiny little man usually rose slightly above his peers, and yet right now he was in that pit of vile putridness.

"Come _on_ Sheldon. Live a little." Leonard made up his face, scrunching his nose.

"I'll have you know I live a _lot_." Sheldon gasped, horrified that his living was being questioned. "Just the other day while I was in my office-."

Leonard rolled his eyes and left him in mid-sentence.

How _rude_.

Pouting, Sheldon followed after Leonard, still clutching the comic in his hand.

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Dodging the blow towards her, Lois twirled around and elbowed the thug in his face, using his moment of pain to yank the crowbar out of his hold and swing it into his gut. Another swing to his back and then his knees had the much larger man on the ground crying, and she turned in time to dodge another blow, the crowbar intended for her hitting the man she'd downed right on the back of his bald head. She slammed her crowbar into the man's face and yanked his one free, twirling both in her hands before assuming an offensive position, striking down the man who'd been clutching his face and screaming.

Unlike Lois, Chloe hadn't grown up fighting and wasn't as natural with it as her cousin, yet she managed to hold up her own as she kicked the man's feet from under him, sending him falling to the ground. She was grabbed from behind, her hands pinned to her sides, an ugly laugh behind her. The blonde slammed her foot down on his, and when he bent over she slammed her head back into his face. With a jerk she got free and threw him over her shoulder onto the one she'd downed and had been in the process of standing.

Seeing the man charging Chloe Lois threw one of her crowbars at him, the sharp edge catching him in the face, cutting him up. She didn't have time to see whether it'd downed him though before someone grabbed her leg and yanked her down, the unexpected fall causing her to let go of the remaining crowbar in her hand. Her breath escaped her body as she hit the ground but Lois didn't let this disorient her, instead yelling as she slammed her foot into her attacker's face repeatedly. Someone grabbed her arms and pinned her down.

Tightening her grip on the crowbar, Chloe brought it down hard against one of the hands holding Lois down, ignoring the sound of bone breaking. She then twirled and swung, catching the man's neck at an awkward angle and sending him flying off of her cousin.

Lois kicked the last man _hard_ in the face, knocking him out.

Chloe looked around her at the huge, fallen men, before going to pick up all of the crowbars they'd touched, refusing to leave any fingerprints. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her keys, opening the car door and flinging the weapons in the backseat. The blonde turned towards her discarded bags before pausing when she realized that they'd attracted quite a small crowd of onlookers. All of them were males in their twenties/thirties, many of them with their eyes and mouths open wide in shock...a couple of them filming this with their phone cameras.

Lois walked passed her, grabbing her bags without even acknowledging the gawking men.

Chloe took a page out of her cousin's book and picked up the rest of her bags, realizing she was going to have to get a new car and new fake vehicle license plates.

It was only as she was turning to leave that she stopped, recognizing Dr. Cooper, Leonard and Wolowitz standing there watching.

After another second she noticed their cute, silent indian friend there as well.

Oh _great_.

Hurrying to the car, she got in and Lois drove away.

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"So many of my fantasies have just come _true_!" Wolowitz declared as the four men circled the computer, eyeing the video he'd uploaded onto youtube of the "Two Super Babes" as he'd titled the video. "Two hot honnies beating the crap out of some huge muscular men! This was awesome! Just like in the movies! Or the comics!"

"Dude, it was _hot_." Raj agreed, unable to look away. "I mean, look at the dark haired one. She's so _natural_."

"The blonde isn't doing so bad either considering she's so petite." Leonard was obviously rooting for the little people, being one himself.

Sheldon folded his arms over his chest, frowning in concentration on the screen as Howard put the video to replay once more. There was just something about those two girls that were familiar somehow, and he'd noticed the way the blonde had frozen when she'd seen him. The way her body had reacted, pupils dilating, body tensing...it was as if she'd _recognized_ them and was worried to see them. And if that was true that meant they might know these girls...and considering they had a very small group of females whom they knew…everything pointed to the new girls since the blonde was _definitely_ not Penny, and the brunette was _definitely_ not Leslie Winkle.

That made things more intriguing.

There was the girls' sudden and mysterious appearance on scene, the blonde's intelligence, the brunette's _obvious_ martial arts training...it made Sheldon realize that they were most probably spies sent to keep an eye on him. Obviously the leaders of some other country or organization had realized his brilliance and potential more than his own country and Caltech did. It was perversely flattering that they'd send two operatives to shadow him. He felt like he was the protagonist in a superhero comic.

"Hey, look, some others at the comic store posted their videos." Leonard motioned to Wolowitz to click on one of them, the video uploading.

He had to admit that a part of him was disappointed that he was, once again, proved to be the only Homo Novus.

"Wow! She _totally_ looked at Sheldon!" Raj exclaimed, apparently this video showing after the fight was over.

"Lucky dog. I'd have eye-screwed her _so bad_!" Wolowitz shivered at the thought.

Sheldon frowned at Wolowitz deciding he would _never_ truly understand him, or the Homo Sapien race in general.

What was sexual arousing about the thought of copulating with another's eye socket?

The more _Sheldon_ imagined it the more traumatized he felt.

Hearing feminine laughter outside, Howard jumped from his seat, straightened his clothes and hurried to the door, plastering a lecherous smile on his face as he opened it revealing Penny and the blonde. They'd obviously been doing the human _bonding_ rituals and information exchange and now that Sheldon thought of it it made perfect sense. What better way to acquire information about him and his research than to get the information from his circle of friends? If they were desperate enough all they'd have to do was flash their female anatomy and Wolowitz would most definitely spill the beans on_ everything_.

Not that Sheldon really believed Wolowitz_ truly_ had an understanding of his work.

The man only had a _Masters_ for crying out loud!

"Hey guys!" Penny grinned, pulling a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. "I invited Chloe and Lois over for Chinese and vintage games, I hope that's alright."

"_Alright_?" Sheldon squeaked, realizing that these spies were _very good_ at what they were doing! Already they were successfully infiltrating his inner circle!

"Of course it's alright!" Wolowitz struck a pose, leaning against the wall next to the blonde. "Yǒu yuán qiānlǐ lái xiānghuì."

"We have the destiny to meet across a thousand miles?" The blonde raised an eyebrow.

"You speak Mandarin?" Wolowitz asked in surprised.

"Enough to know what that meant." She hedged.

"What about Russian?" Wolowitz raised an eyebrow. "Я достану тебе звезды с небес."

"Oh, wow, never heard that one before." She chuckled. "Nice though. Does offering to bring the stars from the sky really work?"

Oh dear god.

It was now very obvious what she was!

Standing before him was a communist spy!

And now that he thought about it...

Sheldon turned his suspicious gaze on Wolowitz.

...just how much did he know about his acquaintance?

This could have been going on for years without his knowledge!

"Dr. Cooper," if she was a russian spy, her american accent was _impeccable_. "I came here to discuss the contract. Have you managed to give it a look?"

Sheldon cleared his throat, everyone's gaze turning to him. "I have and it isn't _unacceptable_."

She flashed him a grin and came forwards. "So, you don't find that it needs more amending?"

He pursed his lips, not liking to admit that her contract hadn't been horrible and was quite tolerable. "I can live with it as it is."

"Good." She stopped within an acceptable distance from him, folding her arms over her chest and raising an eyebrow at him. "Lois is busy so I've asked Penny to be one of my witness, and I'm sure one of your friends can be my other witness." Her gaze went to Leonard. "Please?"

"Sure." Leonard squeaked, grinning brightly as he pushed his glasses nervously higher up the bridge of his nose.

Oh, Sheldon had to commend this spy. She'd quickly zeroed in on Leonard's weakness and used it against him.

Or had her bosses already known about the resident hobbit's weakness for pretty blondes?

Had she been sent on this mission for that specific reason?

If she made any measly bit of effort she'd easily manage to get close to Leonard-and if so she'd have the run of the apartment!

Sheldon's eyes widened at the implications.

He was going to have to do all in his power to make sure that Leonard and the blonde spy did _not_ have any sort of intimate relations…_especially_ not _coitus_!

Should she engage Leonard in copulation she'd have all the power in the world over Sheldon's roommate!

And that meant the _world_ was in _grave_ danger should Leonard…in colloquial terms…_'score'._

The genius' eyes narrowed as he readied himself for battle.

Leonard and his rampant libido were going _down_!

Sheldon kept his gameface on as the signing of the Good Neighbor Contract occurred, never once taking his eyes off of the wily blonde. She surprised him though, by not even taking a peek towards where his work was so openly displayed and he had to give her credit for staying in character so spectacularly. Obviously her plan was to feign disinterest until she had poor, lust-crazed Leonard wrapped around her pinky. Then she'd attack like a viper, or a cobra, or some other sort of attacking reptilian.

With each copy of the contract signed Sheldon hugged his protectively to his chest while eyeing the spy shrewdly.

"Do you have something in your eyes, Dr. Cooper?" The (possibly russian) spy declared as she turned her attention to him.

His eyes widened, shocked that she could see through his impeccably innocent mask to his suspicions. "Excuse me?"

"Never mind." The blonde shook her head before turning to the others. "To celebrate you'll have to come over for dinner sometime."

"And _desert_?" Wolowitz gave her a dirty little smile.

Raj face-palmed.

Leonard shook his head. "_Please_ don't pay any attention to him."

"None of us do." Penny assured Chloe with an amiable smile. "We'd love to come to dinner sometime. Just give us a time and date and-."

"_Excuse me_." Sheldon squeaked, unable to believe what he was hearing.

Leonard sighed, head lowering. "Oh boy."

"What is it, Sheldon?" Penny pursed her lips.

"I can't just _eat_ at her place!" Not only could she very well be a spy, but Sheldon didn't eat just _anything_! "I have specified guidelines and rules as to what I can eat and how it must be prepared and my food _cannot_ be handled by someone else's hands unless there are gloves involved and-."

"_Whoa_." Chloe gave a little laugh, shaking her head. "Do you have a manual or something on your eating requirements?"

"Please don't ask!" Leonard groaned.

"As a matter of fact I _do." _Sheldon had to admit that this was the first time someone had had the common sense to ask him that question. "It's right in my bedroom."

"Next to his rules on how to thoroughly alienate people." Wolowitz mumbled.

"Don't be ridiculous Howard." Sheldon snorted. "I have no such manual."

"It's just innate talent then, huh?" The annoying man declared.

Sheldon narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth to refute that.

"Can I have a copy of the manual? The, uh, food one." Chloe stepped in before Sheldon could give Wolowitz a firm talking to. "I can say I tend not to handle the food with my hands unless absolutely necessary, and I'm more than willing to use gloves if it will make you feel better."

Sheldon froze and turned to look at her, shocked.

This was the first time that someone hadn't complained about him being 'difficult' (which, truthfully, couldn't be farther from the truth) and had been so…_amenable_.

Obviously her country or boss _really_ wanted his work.

Nodding, Sheldon turned and went to his room, admittedly taking longer than necessary to retrieve the manual. He could hear everyone (minus Raj of course) apologizing for Sheldon's behavior, Wolowtiz declaring something that was _definitely_ going to earn him his second strike…and then the newcomer just laughed their words off and said she…understood…Sheldon.

He froze by the door, confused and shocked because she sounded genuine.

Granted, he wasn't the best at reading people (the fact that he had yet to master the art of _sarcasm_ said a lot) but the way the others were reacting to her statement proved that they too seemed to believe her.

The blonde went on to state the percentage of people who'd gotten salmonella and other such food poisonings the previous year due to bad handling of food, and poured out some other figures that he himself knew and was shocked someone else did. She also mentioned on how the kitchen counter probably had more germs than most places in any apartment and that that was why she cleaned it in a special way with deep cleaning (yet harmless to the environment) products.

It was jarring considering that Sheldon had told his friends these very facts and had been reproached for it, yet they seemed interested in it when the blonde spoke about them. If it hadn't been for the fact that Penny had never shown any interest in her own sex Sheldon would have attributed the difference to hopeful potential mates trying to win the favor of an attractive member of the opposite sex. So since that wasn't it Sheldon wondered if it was a difference in presentation.

They would have no doubt taught that in Espionage 101.

"I'm sorry though, about how difficult Sheldon's being." Leonard declared in his whiney, nasal way. The traitor. "People aren't usually so accommodating to his-."

"_Idiocies_." And _that_ was why Wolowitz was the 'acquaintance'.

"I was going to say 'peculiarities'." Leonard deadpanned.

"Please, you don't have to keep apologizing for him." The spy declared. "Compared to other people I know _nothing_ Dr. Cooper could do could _ever_ be half as strange."

He raised an eyebrow at that, wondering what sort of people attended whatever sort of school spies trained in, before finally returning to the group and handing her the large, printed manual. "Here."

"Whoa." She replied once more, appearing to fall back on that word whenever she wasn't sure what to say. "This is huge." She browsed through the neatly typed pages. "Did you compile all this data and put it together on your own?"

"Yes." He waited for the derisive comment he was used to receiving, though he never understood _why_ he received it considering that he was quite proud of this (and every) creation of his.

"That's…dedicated." She suddenly surprised everyone, Sheldon included, by grinning mischievously. "Challenge accepted!"

Raj leaned into Leonard and whispered something in his ear.

Leonard went red and began to fidget.

Chloe's phone beeped and she checked her messages. "Well, it was nice seeing you all but there's a slight crisis with the cleaning crew."

"Remember to come back down for Chinese and Vintage games!" Penny exclaimed.

"Sure." The new neighbor nodded, and with that she was gone, carrying both her copy of the Good Neighbor Contract _and_ Sheldon's Comprehensive Guide To Sanitary Consumption, 3rd Edition.

"She seems really nice." Penny smiled brightly before turning to Leonard. "You said the comic book store is looking for someone to work there and help Stewart right?"

"Yeah." Leonard nodded. "Why? You thinking about getting another job?"

"Me? No." Penny chuckled. "But Chloe says that Lois wants to get a job in a store."

"Ah!" Wolowitz placed a hand to his heart. "The future Mrs. Wolowitz has a name!"

Raj rolled his eyes.

"You know, if she applies for the job Stewart will give it to her immediately." Leonard declared. "He'd have the only comic book store which has an incredible good looking girl working there. It'd draw in much more customers."

"I don't think a "good looking girl" would influence a _true_ comic book fan." Sheldon declared.

As always, his sage thoughts were ignored.

Shaking his head, realizing how wasted he was on his friends and acquaintance, Sheldon sighed as he went to his computer.

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"Oh, you've _got_ to be jerking me." Chloe chuckled, shaking her head and running her hand through her hair in disbelief.

She'd gone upstairs to not only get the contract signed, but to recon the situation and see if their neighbors had recognized them from their little jaunt earlier on. But while she'd seen a frozen image of the video behind them on the computer (the video had been posted to youtube-dear god) none of them seemed to suspect a thing. The only one who'd acted weird was Dr. Cooper, but from what she was learning from his friends 'weird' was the norm for him.

So thankfully the girls had dodged a bullet.

She'd been near giddy with the realization that for _once_ they'd had some luck.

And then the 'SOS' had been sent and she'd come up thinking maybe they'd run out of cleaning supplies…only to find _this_ instead.

"I jerk you not." Lois replied, ignoring the cleaning crew, half of whom were nervously crossing themselves.

"_El diablo esta en este apartamento! Es su casa!"_

"No, this _is not_ the devil's home." Chloe assured one of the older, more shaken women. "_Mi apartamento no es casa del diablo. No hay ningun diablo aqui_. _No se preucupe tanto senora._"

"You know Spanish?" Lois asked in obvious surprise.

"How is it that you don't blink an eye at me knowing Latin-but you're shellshocked I speak _Spanish_?" Chloe snorted.

"_Este lugar esta maldecida_!" Another of the ladies cried, continuing to cross herself near manically.

"It's not _cursed_!" Chloe tried to reassure the women and men, who didn't seem to believe her one bit. "I can't believe you'd actually _think_ this is the devil's cursed apartment! I mean, just because there's a secret compartment filled with animal bones and a propped up stuffed ram's head and pictures of demons preying on virgins…okay, I can get why you'd _think_ it's cursed. But it's not. Trust me."

"_El diablo_!" They kept hissing to themselves.

Chloe sighed, bowing her head. "We're going to have to find new cleaning people."

"They're going to deal with the freaky altar before they go though, right?" Off Chloe's look, Lois made up her face. "But I don't want to touch that! _El diablo_!"

"_El diablo_!" The people chorused.

Chloe smacked her hand to her face.

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**TBC**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or The Big Bang Theory.**

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Chloe and Lois had brought over enough to pay for their food, and Chloe concentrated on enjoying the Chinese while Lois threw herself into the vintage video games. The brunette had always been a gamer, and the fact seemed to fascinate the men in the room. Apparently Penny was an avid gamer as well, though she admitted to preferring Age of Conan, and she and Lois were already plotting to team up and conquer the cyberworld together. The boys seemed _far_ too eager for this super-villain-like duo to do their worse on the unsuspecting online gamers.

But that would have to be another night, as tonight was Vintage Video Game Night.

Apparently Dr. Cooper ran a tight schedule, each day had its assigned chores and activities, and it fascinated Chloe to see just how far his obsessive compulsiveness went. Some of these peculiarities were that he never ate in strange restaurants since there was the risk of non-standard cutlery, which he found insulting since three tines made a _trident_ and not a fork. A movie experience had to include Red Vines (not Twizzlers) and Icees (not Slurpess), and he refused to go on his own since he needed someone to be there in case he was in the need for someone to perform the Hiemlich Maneuver. He'd also never live in a city where the streets were laid out in a whole and spoke pattern, such as Washington D.C.

Most interesting of all, he had a spot on the sofa which was "Sheldon's Spot" in which no one else was allowed to sit on. She'd received many groans when she'd asked Dr. Cooper exactly why he'd claimed that spot as his, but she'd been admittedly fascinated by his response. Apparently in the winter that spot was close enough to the radiator to remain warm and not so close as to cause perspiration, while in the summer it was directly in the path of a cross breeze created by opening windows in certain key places. It also faced the television at an angle that was neither direct, thus discouraging conversation, but not so dar wide as to create a parallax distortion.

She also seemed to make him somewhat uncomfortable for some reason. It was almost like he kept watching her out of the corner of his eye, ready to catch her doing something she shouldn't be. He afforded Lois with similar alertness to begin with, but once he'd realized she had eyes for nothing but the games he'd seemed to deem her less interesting (or maybe less of a threat? Why the word 'threat' came to mind she did not know) but he continued to keep an eye on Chloe. Anyone else might think attraction had a hand in how he was acting but this was Chloe, and she knew better than that, knew not to flatter herself like that and not feed her ego. This was something else. He didn't trust her. The way he stiffened up and lost concentration in his game (thus losing points and sometimes lives) whenever she so much as moved…well…it left her intrigued.

A part of her wondered if this had anything to do with her reaction to his work. He'd removed the boards and from a comment Leonard had made he'd placed them in the safety of his room.

He'd also excused himself very awkwardly and very, well, it would have seemed _suspiciously_…once she and Lois had arrived saying he'd forgotten something in Leonard's car and would be right back. He'd been gone for a while but when he'd returned he'd seemed vaguely pleased with himself and while that left her curious (since he hadn't brought back anything with him) she was still more fascinated with his oddness to really comment on it.

"So, did you all know the guys who used to live in our apartment were into _serious _demon worship?" Lois asked casually as kicked Howard's butt in whatever video game they were playing.

Chloe had lost interest a while back, and had found herself reading a book she'd brought down with her, never having been much of a gamer herself.

"_What_?" Penny squeaked from where she was enjoying dessert, eyes wide in horror. "They _were_?"

"You're joking." Howard's eyes were just as wide as he forgot all about the game.

Raj leaned in and whispered in his ear…apparently the cute Indian had a thing about talking to women. He couldn't. Unless he was drunk.

"I _know_ they were scary…but _still_." Howard mumbled.

"How do you know that they were satanists?" Leonard asked, pushing his glasses higher up the bridge of his nose.

"The stuffed rams head and the pictures of demons attacking girls propped up on a _really_ messed up altar was something of a clue." Lois grinned as she pulverized Howard's immobile avatar and won the game.

"Oh my god." Penny whispered in shock. "That's horrible! What are you guys going to do?"

"Get new cleaning people for starters considering ours are scared shitless by _el diablo_." Lois shrugged, yanking the controller out of Howard's hands (only now did he realize he was dead and complained about it) passing it to a silent Raj. "Does anyone know where the closest metaphysical store is by the way?"

"Metaphysical-don't tell me you actually _believe_ in that hokum!" Dr. Cooper cried out.

"It's not 'hokum'!" Penny disagreed vehemently. "I tell you the supernatural is _real_!"

"Real _hokum_ you mean." He snorted at her. "Science has proven time and time again that-."

"Oh, I don't know. What about quantum mechanics and the fringe sciences?" There was something about Dr. Cooper that made Chloe want to all-out battle him sometimes. "Also, much that was once thought "hokum" by science was later rescinded and with better technology proved. The world's actually round and _not_ the center of the universe. With Kirlian photography you can actually take pictures of _auras_. Edgar Cayce could accurate pinpoint problems and their cures while in hypnotic trances. There have been events that no one has ever able to debunk, no matter how hard they tried."

"They didn't try hard enough." Dr. Cooper frowned at her.

"You realize many people believe the idea of multiple universes being _hokum, _right?" Chloe went for the heart, sinking her teeth in.

"It is not hokum!" Dr. Cooper gasped in horror and offense.

"There's no proof that there's more than one universe." Chloe shrugged, leaning back.

"There's been evidences, things that the greatest minds haven't been able to explain!" Dr. Cooper snapped at her. "But just because inferior, closed minds cannot grasp the concept doesn't mean that it isn't real!"

Her lips twitched and she could feel the victory. "Exactly."

For a moment he obviously didn't understand what she was getting at…and then he did…and he frowned darkly at her yet didn't comment on it, eyes narrowed.

It was only then that she realized that everyone had stopped what they were doing and were watching them, Dr. Cooper's friends with wide-eyed expressions of shock, Lois with a smirk of amusement, having known her cousin would get the last word.

"So," Chloe turned to look at Penny. "_Do_ you know of a metaphysical shop nearby?"

"I know a little place not _too_ far away." Penny seemed all too smug and pleased as she sent a look in Dr. Cooper's direction. "They have their own website as well, I'll email you the URL."

"Thanks." Chloe smiled.

"Wait, you have their _emails_?" Howard turned to Penny, mock insult in his tone. "And why don't _we_ have those precious details as well?"

"Because I don't want to hurt you should you send me something inappropriate." Lois replied as she and Raj battled it out, seeming quite on par with each other.

"Maybe I _like_ being hurt." Howard nearly purred, his face and voice pure insinuation.

Lois snorted, not even bothering to look up from the game. "Yeah…don't even _imagine_ what you're imagining right now. Never happening."

Penny looked disgusted at Howard, yet very much resigned to accepting that he was like this and yet she still hung out with him.

Chloe didn't really have a problem with Howard, he was a very vulgar version of Bart, and while the little man could be a little _too_ out there with his sexual insinuations she _did_ find some of what he said funny. Then again, it could just be the vague association she made with Bart that made her feel that way.

Speaking of Bart, Chloe wondered how he was doing. Last she'd seen of him he hadn't been doing too well and the blonde felt a sliver of guilt worm its way inside of her at actually having fun while her friends were battling and in danger. She hated having to hide out while they did all the dangerous stuff, and yet she had to remind herself over and over again that she and Lois were doing something very important as well. Even if it didn't feel that way.

She needed a moment and turned to Leonard, noticing Dr. Cooper tensing immediately. "May I use the bathroom?"

"Sure!" Leonard nodded, pointing to where it was.

"Thanks." Standing, Chloe went to the bathroom and turned on the light, closing the door behind her and leaning against it as she took in a deep breath.

Shaking her head, Chloe went to the mirror and gazed at herself, telling her reflection that she was doing the right thing, that she was helping to protect millions of lives by being here. That she wasn't a coward for having taken the easy road. That she wasn't betraying her best friends because she'd actually been _enjoying_ her time in hiding. She tried convincing herself of this but she'd been a part of the evil-fighting team for far too long now and this time away from the forefront was eating at her. She felt useless and impotent. She _hated_ it.

That was when her gaze caught sight of some colorful papers resting above the toilet and her eyes widened as she recognized something. "_What_?"

Turning, Chloe raced to the comic books that'd obviously been left there for reading material and on the covers she could see faces she recognized. Something cold weighed in the bottom of her stomach as she picked up the others. Superman. Batman. The Flash. Even the Green Arrow!

How-?

_How_?

She flipped through the comic books, terror filling her as their real names, occupations-_everything_ about them were written in these comic books!

"Oh my god." She barely managed to put down the toilet's cover before collapsing onto it, her legs giving out on her. "I can't believe this."

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Sheldon congratulated himself on another job well done. No one had even _suspected_ him or his plans and now he'd be able to catch these spies redhanded! He'd know their plans and be one step ahead of them! He, of course, was a genius. It'd been too easily to con everyone into thinking he was going somewhere to do something else when in fact he'd made it to their apartment and installed a camera in the apartment he'd unlocked thanks to googling how to pick a lock. It was actually easier than he would have expected. Obviously he'd have to reinforce his own locks posthaste.

And now he was back safe and sound in his apartment, eyeing the enemy.

The bathroom door opened and a very pallid Chloe exited, her eyes wide and haunted.

For a second he was surprised at the change in her appearance.

"I'm sorry, I'm not feeling well." And with that she brushed passed them all and raced out.

Lois' eyes narrowed in worry as she handed the remote in her hands to Penny. "Night guys. Thanks for having us over."

And with that she hurried out after her 'cousin'.

"Well…" Sheldon stood and stretched, yawning, trying to make this believable. "On that note, I'm _very_ tired and need my rest. So I'm going to be going to my room. To rest. Nothing else." He then hurried to grab his computer and raced into his room.

Locking the door behind him, despite the fact that no one was allowed in his room anyway, Sheldon put on the earphones and sat down on the bed as he brought up the link to the wireless cameras he's installed and hidden around the apartment. He watched the door as Chloe (if that was even _really_ her name) hurried in, the door not closing as Lois (real name also in debate) grabbed it and opened it, entering in as well.

…

_"What is it?" Lois locked the door behind her. "What happened?"_

_"They know." Chloe turned towards her, looking absolutely sick. "They _**_know_**_."_

_"_**_Who_**_ knows _**_what_**_?" Lois went towards her, seeming worried. "What are you talking about? Have they found us? Do we need to move?"_

_"No-I-!" Chloe collapsed onto the sofa. "People know about the Justice League here."_

…

Sheldon blinked in utter confusion.

_Huh_?

…

_Horror filled Lois' features. "What? What do you mean they know about the Justice League? That's impossible!"_

_"I thought so too, but Lois, they have comics about them!" Chloe seemed near tears. "In these comics their real identities and everything are common knowledge!"_

_"Not their weaknesses too." Lois whispered in horror as she collapsed on the sofa next to Chloe._

_"Yes. At least the one I briefed through about Clark spoke about Kryptonite." Chloe closed her eyes and covered her face with her hands. "If information like this got into the wrong hands-!"_

_"How can they know about this? We live in a different dimension!" Lois stood up once more and began to pace. "Are you telling me that things that are myths or just stories in one world-are true in another?"_

…

Sheldon felt his whole body go numb as realization hit him hard like a ton of bricks.

These girls weren't communist spies.

They were…aliens…from another world! Another dimension! Another reality! Another _universe!_

One in which the Justice League of America was _real_!

And they were a part of it! Or at least knew the members quite closely!

He began to hyperventilate, unable to believe this.

They were the proof that the Multiple Universes Hypothesis was _real_!

…

_"The only thing is that apparently some of their information is wrong." Chloe ran a shaky hand through her hair. "In the comic book it insinuated a relationship between you and Clark, and didn't mention Lana."_

...

Sheldon's eyes widened.

Lois…couldn't be _Lois Lane_…could she?

…

_"Okay, at least we know that not all information is a hundred per cent accurate." Lois breathed out in relief. "Did you see anything about yourself?"_

_"No. I wasn't mentioned." Chloe frowned. "That could be a good thing though. The less information known about me the better."_

_"But you have to be mentioned somewhere, especially if I am." Lois insisted, shaking her head. "And you only saw a couple of comics, right? There's got to be more out there and you have to be in them. You're a part of the Justice League. You're Watchtower. When Brainiac possessed you he left you with a brain faster than the fastest supercomputer. You're probably one of the smartest people in the combined _**_worlds._**_ Right now, you're the only reason the dimensions haven't crashed and the worlds ended."_

_"The both of us are." Chloe interjected. "But none of that matters if the wrong person traces us to this reality..and finds out about the trove of information on the Justice League that exists here!"_

_"We picked the wrong world to jump to, didn't we?" Lois flinched._

_"Yeah." Chloe whispered. "It might be better if no one ever found us again."_

_Lois appeared horrified at that, yet her gaze went to the closet and she closed her eyes. "We need to stop the tracking transmission to Watchtower."_

_A silent tear slid down Chloe's cheek. "We can't ever be found."_

…

Sheldon raced to his wallet and pulled out his Justice League membership card, which he'd joined when he was five years old.

This news…this shifted his world…and Sheldon didn't know what he was supposed to do.

A part of him wanted to squeal and race to their apartment and demand information…and yet another part of him understood the importance of what was happening…and he knew that they would _never_ trust him and let him into the inner sanctum if they knew he'd bugged their apartment.

Sheldon sat down on his bed.

He was going to have to get back in that apartment and get rid of all evidence against him before they found out.

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**TBC**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or The Big Bang Theory.**

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Considering that Lois had been the one to cleanse their apartment above the Talon when Chloe had been possessed, the blonde left her cousin in charge of cleansing the apartment once more. Sure, she went to the store and looked around, picking up this and that, and bought some things for her own use, but she left Lois to pick out the sage and the incense and the feather and all the other things the brunette declared they needed. The blonde still felt somewhat numb from having destroyed the beacon which transmitted their signal to Watchtower, the only way that their location could be pinpointed in the many different galaxies, worlds, and realities. It was still unreal, the thought that she'd never see Clark again. He'd always been an important part of her life, and even the loss of Lana, Ollie and the others in her life were weighing down hard on her.

And yet they'd done the right thing destroying the beacon. They'd had to jump to a different world for a reason, and while they were here the others had a fighting chance. That was all that mattered.

So Chloe and Lois needed to fit into civilian life and blend in as well as they could, integrating themselves into society.

It was easier said than done when one fought evil since high school, but Chloe knew it was for the good of her home world, and so she wouldn't complain or shed a tear.

She needed to be strong.

Lois seemed to feel the same way, because since they'd destroyed the beacon she'd refused to speak about it and had busied herself. First it'd been cleaning her room despite it already being clean, then it'd been with the shopping in the metaphysical store, and now it was charming Stewart, the young man from the comic book store they'd had the fight outside of, the same store which was looking for someone to work full-time.

From the looks of it, Lois was going to get the job without any problem.

As the brunette secured the position that would grant her access to all the comic books and thus be able to study them and find out exactly what the people of this world knew and didn't, Chloe ignored the gazes of the men in the store as she browsed through some of the material in the shop. Her gaze was drawn to the back, where shirts and figurines and such were on display, biting down on her bottom lip when she saw the symbol of the House of El displayed proudly. A part of her wanted to buy that shirt, but she knew it'd be torture for both her and Lois, who had both loved Clark and lost him to Lana, so instead she found herself browsing through the other logos, recognizing some and yet not others.

There was a green one that she didn't know herself, but from a comic she'd seen a couple of stands back she knew belonged to some superhero called the Green Lantern.

She wondered if he existed in her world as well.

Taking in a deep breath, Chloe reached for the shirt despite the fact that it was humongous for her, gazing down at it.

She wanted something that reminded her of home, and yet wasn't too familiar...didn't hurt to look at.

"I got the job." Lois announced as she reached her side, voice subdued as her hazel gaze rested on the shirt with the symbol of the House of El on it. "A part of me wishes I hadn't...this is going to be hard."

Chloe could understand, since being surrounded by objects which reminded them of the life and loved ones they'd left behind sounded like torture to her. "I'm thinking about getting a job too, since we're staying here."

Lois lowered her gaze. "I'm still processing that, you know?"

Chloe nodded. "None of this was supposed to be permanent."

"Good thing I came with you." Lois whispered, reaching out to clasp Chloe's hand with her own, squeezing.

Fighting a rogue tear which wanted to spring forth out of love for her cousin, Chloe swallowed down the sob and squeezed back, the cousins drawing comfort, strength, and soothing love from each other.

"Come on, we should go, we're giving a couple of these guys nosebleeds." Lois laughed softly, leading Chloe to the cash register by the hand, winking at one of the closest guys, causing him to squeak and go bright red.

Shaking her head, amused at Lois' power over men, Chloe smiled at Stewart and passed him the oversized Green Lantern shirt.

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"You BUGGED the neighbors?" Leonard cried, appearing quite horrified.

Sheldon frowned down at his roommate, pursing his lips. "That's not the point Leonard."

"How is that _not_ the point?" Leonard pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "It's a felony! And creepy! Howard-esque creepy!"

"Do _not_ put me in the same category as Wolowitz." Sheldon couldn't keep the insult from his face. "I did not put cameras and microphones in their apartment to catch them in various stages of nudity."

"Then why _did_ you put cameras and microphones in their apartment?" Leonard sighed loudly, palming his face.

Sheldon hoped that Leonard interpreted his series of facial muscles spasms as some sort of problem with his muscular control and not as some sort of "tell"."I don't need to have a _reason_ do I?"

"_Sheldon_." Leonard observed him with narrowed eyes. "What aren't you telling me?"

Oh, Sheldon had deeply hoped that Leonard wouldn't see through his cool facade but he knew he was horrible at keeping secrets.

Just terrible.

Obviously Homus Novi weren't supposed to exist in a civilization in which deceit was so prevalent.

"You've been acting odder than usual, like last night. First you think Chloe's a Homo Novus, then a spy, then you're on edge with her keeping an eye on her so intensely you lose your game, then you install _cameras_ in her apartment to spy on her and then you get a surprising attack of conscience and want my help to uninstall them without the girls finding out. Why in the world are you acting this...odd?" Leonard eyed him curiously before his eyes widened. "Oh, my!"

Sheldon fidgeted, knowing he was unable to lie and yet not sure Leonard should know about the girls. It wasn't that he didn't trust Leonard, but he felt paranoid with this information now and felt it was his sworn duty as a card carrying member of the Justice League to help protect the girls while they stayed in his world. And if he was to be truthful, the scientist in him wanted to study them and see how they adapted to life on a planet not their own.

"Oh, wow...so the thai food theory is _way_ off." Leonard was apparently babbling incoherencies. "Wow. Just. I never thought...wow."

"What are you _talking_ about?" Sheldon was confused, very confused, and he didn't like the feeling.

"Your deal. She's your deal!" Leonard was chuckling, shaking his head, running his hand over his hair. "Wow."

"My _deal_?" What in the world was Leonard talking about? "Yes, I have to deal with the situation...and that is why I'm requesting your assistance in the matter..."

"Wow." Leonard was grinning like an idiot.

Sheldon frowned, wondering if he'd somehow managed to break him.

"I never thought I'd be helping you in _this_ sort of situation..." Leonard brought his hand to his heart. "Really makes me rethink the way I see the universe."

Obviously he'd broken the little man.

Nothing he said was making sense.

"Will help you or will you not?" Sheldon prompted, annoyed with his confusion.

"Of course I will!" Leonard grinned brighter. "Buddy! Pal!"

Sheldon felt a little unnerved with that smile on Leonard's face and wondered if he should be backing away slowly.

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"Is that it?" Chloe asked from where she'd been observing Lois performing the cleansing ritual in silence.

"Should be." Lois nodded, looking around her, hands on her hips, satisfaction on her face. "_El diablo_'s out of the house."

"To be fair, he was never _in_ the house." Chloe felt the need to point out.

"If you thought so why did we go to all of the trouble of the cleansing ritual?" Lois raised an eyebrow.

"Because I've lived in Smallville too long to not be paranoid?" Chloe grinned, before sighing. "Do you think magic really exists in this world? What about meteors? Did they fall here?"

"I don't think the meteors did, that would be too much of a stretch or coincidence, but who's not to say magic is real?" Lois sat down next to her cousin, resting her feet on the coffee table with a sigh. "So what are we going to do now that that's been done away with?"

Chloe's gaze went to the closet. "I say it's the perfect hiding place, don't you?"

Lois' gaze followed hers. "We can't keep it in the closet anyway. Every time we go out I get paranoid that someone is going to break into the apartment and steal it while we're gone."

"Me too. And its a very good hiding place." Chloe nodded, turning her gaze to the ceiling. "You want to do the honors?"

"You don't want to?" Lois asked in surprise.

"Ever since that incident I've been...I don't know how to put it..." she ran her finger through her golden hair. "I haven't figured out how to disconnect from it yet."

"Are you saying that you're still _online_?" Lois' eyes widened as she turned to her cousin. "Is that _safe_?"

Chloe shrugged. "I'm hoping since Brainiac was Kryptonian, and his essence is infused within me, that I'll be okay."

"Why didn't you mention this before?" Lois stood, wariness obvious on her every expression. "We used the crystal to get here!"

"Lois..." Chloe begun.

"No! You need to be a hundred percent honest with me! We're in this to the end and I need to be informed of _everything_! Especially if you're unable to disconnect your mental wavelengths with a Kryptonian Crystal!" Lois stomped her foot, furious. "You _know_ how it hurt you when you used the crystal to pull us out of the Phantom Zone! You were _bleeding_. Being connected to it for this length of time can't be good!"

"I really haven't been disconnected from it since then, Lo." Chloe admitted, giving her cousin a crooked smile. "I think if something was going to happen, it would have happened then."

Lois collapsed onto the sofa. "Since _then_?"

The blonde nodded.

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"You're joking."

"No, I'm not!" Leonard grinned brightly, voice lowered yet excited. "He has a deal! He _actually_ has a deal!"

"Sheldon Cooper, Doctor Whackadoodle...has a _deal_." Penny threw herself down on her sofa, shocked out of her wits. "Is it even _possible_?"

"I didn't think so and yet you've seen how alert he is around her and now he's asked me about how one could apply his Friendship Algorithm to encompass a relationship with female neighbors and he's trying to remember exactly _how_ you and we became friends so he can duplicate the process!" Leonard collapsed down next to her. "When I left him he was going over his Friendship Algorithm while simultaneously searching the internet for relevant information on how hominids "bond"." His grin was so large it looked like it might hurt. "Ergo, he has a deal!"

"Sheldon Cooper is trying to make friends with someone." Penny was shellshocked, still feeling like she was in some sort of a dream where Sheldon became normal. "Does he get anything out of this? Because remember the whole Kripke fiasco?"

"What could he possibly get out of Chloe other than...female companionship?" Leonard wanted to know.

"Oh my god, he has a deal." Penny couldn't help but feel giggly and bubbly as she turned towards Leonard. "We need to help him Leonard, Sheldon is...Sheldon...and if he doesn't have our guidance he's going to mess things up! I mean, Chloe's been very accommodating to his whackadoodleness so far (and that in itself is a good sign) but _still_, he needs our help."

"That he does." Leonard agreed, nodding his head.

"He isn't going to expect one of our group to leave again, is he?" Penny wanted to know, remembering the last time once more. "Didn't he say something about maintaining a certain amount of friendships being 'cumbersome' or something like that?"

"I don't know." Leonard paused. "I should probably warn Raj."

Penny made a face. "I'm not going to have to answer _another_ questionnaire concerning Sheldon and why he's such a _great_ friend, am I?"

"I don't know..." Leonard repeated, scrunching his features and pursing his lips in thought. "But I doubt it. Sheldon should have gotten as much information from those sheets as he could possibly get."

"Good, because I am _not_ doing something like that _ever_ again." Penny replied, leaning hard against the sofa, before tilting her head towards Leonard. "Well, you see where the natural beginning of our helping should be, don't you?"

"The Renaissance Faire next weekend?" Leonard asked curiously. "Because I was thinking we could invite Lois and Chloe along and Sheldon could impress her with his knowledge of the era and such, she seems to actually not be annoyed when he spouts out all that information no one cares about."

"I noticed that, but _no_, that was not what I was talking about." Penny sighed, realizing that these poor boys needed her help desperately. "The dinner we're having over at their place. It's going to be a perfect opportunity. Chloe's actually going to use Sheldon's massive manual and that alone shows that she's tolerant and _brave_, two things anyone who gets with Sheldon has to be."

"Right." Leonard nodded, agreeing, he'd had to be a lot of _both_ to live with Sheldon for as long as he had.

"Now listen closely Leonard," Penny leaned forwards, voice and expression determined. "This is our game plan."

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Knock knock knock.

Knock knock knock.

Knock knock knock.

Considering Lois was in the shower and couldn't hear the rapid succession of three knocks followed by a pause, followed by three more knocks, Chloe emerged from her bedroom and made her way towards the front door. She'd just finished bathing as well, her hair wet and sticking to her face, wearing only the oversized Green Lantern shirt that reached her to her knees, and underwear.

What he was doing outside of their apartment at this time of night?

A glance out of the peephole wasn't needed to know that the person with the three-fold knock was Dr. Cooper, his OCD behavior betraying his presence.

But why exactly was he here?

Knock knock knock.

Knock knock knock.

He hadn't made it a secret that he didn't trust them and was very wary concerning them, especially her, so why was he here?

Knock knock knock.

Shaking her head, realizing she'd never know if she didn't answer, Chloe unlocked the door and opened it, seeing Dr. Cooper about to knock on the door once more. "Dr. Cooper, what a surprise to see you."

He shoved an open, half-empty container of Oreos into her arms. "I've been informed that it is the socially correct move to welcome a new neighbor by the giving of sustenance. Thus the Oreos."

Chloe eyed the man, then her gaze went down to the Oreos, before raising back to him.

He was the oddest man she'd ever met.

It was fascinating how his mind worked.

"If you do not like Oreos there's a half-pack of-." He began.

"No! Oreos are fine." She quickly assured him, unable to keep her lips from quirking in amusement at him and this whole situation. "Thank you very much, Dr. Cooper."

"Sheldon, please."

Okay, something was up.

He'd cleared his throat when Penny had introduced him by his first name and hadn't had any issue with Chloe and Lois referring to him as Dr. Cooper this whole time.

So what had changed for him to suddenly have this about-face?

"Sheldon." She played along with a nod. "Then please call me Chloe as well."

"I will." He nodded, visibly awkward and uncomfortable yet determined...and then his eyes widened. "You like the Green Lantern?"

Only then did she realize that he had a similar shirt on. "I-uh-don't really know him."

He nodded, though disappointment was rife on his face for some reason.

Silence dragged on between them, awkward and weird.

And yet he wasn't making any move to leave.

Fascinating.

Tilting her head to the side, Chloe observed him. "Dr.-_Sheldon_, would you like to come in for a couple of minutes? I promise the place is clean."

He looked up, excited, before nodding.

He wore his every feeling on his face, like a child.

Chloe stepped aside and let him inside, closing the door behind him as she took the Oreos to the kitchen and watched him standing in the middle of the livingroom, observing the sofa and the different seating areas.

"Oh boy." He whispered to himself, excited and determined. "I've never been here before...I need to find my spot."

Leaning against the kitchen counter, Chloe's smile grew as she chuckled, shaking her head at him. "Go at it."

He turned towards her, smile childlike before turning back his attention towards the sofa and sitting down. He made a face, concentrated as the next couple of minutes found him changing positions, seats, trying to find His Spot.

Chloe reached for an Oreo and chewed on it as she watched him.

While Sheldon was intent on the finding of His Spot, Lois emerged from her room, saw him, and turned right back, closing her door behind her silently as she retreated unnoticed.

The coward.

Finally Sheldon situated himself on the loveseat, hands on his knees, nodding. "Here. Definitely. It's not as good as My Spot in my own apartment but this will do just fine."

"What a coincidence." Chloe swallowed the last bite of Oreo, trying for a joke. "It's right next to _My_ Spot."

"Is it? _Fascinating_." Sheldon announced with another nod, seeming quite pleased with himself and her for having chosen those Spots, probably guessing that she'd used the same reasoning and such that he had to choose it...and not at all getting that she'd been joking.

She didn't have the heart to tell him the truth.

"I understand that it is an indecent hour of the night to be visiting a female, my Meemaw would reproach me should she know, but when Stu the Cockatoo was new at the zoo he found out that the best way to make friends was to be himself and make known his desire for friendship by extending a proverbial olive branch."

He was losing her with the Cockatoo reference, but she could still get what he was trying to say...to do...and while she couldn't help but feel that there was an ulterior motive somewhere she found herself more intrigued than wary. She'd seen evil before, and Sheldon Cooper didn't seem to be _capable_ of evil. But still he was a genius (if he could be believed) and there was just something fishy about this whole thing.

"Does Stu the Cockatoo make friends once he does this?" She questioned.

He brightened at the question. "Yes! Drew the Emu and Zane the Crane." He leaned towards her, almost as if sharing a secret. "Between you and me, I think they needed a friend just as much as Stu. Poor souls." He shook his head. "Zoos appear to be caste oriented."

Chloe just gazed at him with a confused yet intrigued expression on her face, lips twitching with reluctant amusement despite his serious demeanor. "Dinner. Tomorrow night. Eight o'clock. You, Leonard, Penny, Raj...and even Howard. Be here." She hesitated a second before adding. "Everyone needs a friend."

She didn't know what exactly Sheldon was doing, but she'd give him the benefit of the doubt.

If they were stuck in this world, they were going to need as many friends as possible.

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**TBC**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or The Big Bang Theory.**

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"Why am I not surprised that you're bonding with the weirdo of the group?" Lois wanted to know as she gazed at her reflection in the mirror the next day, propping her boobs up as she readied to start her first day at the comic book store.

"I take offense at that." Chloe chuckled, leaning in the doorway as she watched her cousin, still wearing pajama bottoms and a spaghetti top. "I have normal friends."

"Name _one_." Lois challenged as she pulled down the front of her form-fitting shirt, once more propping up her breasts so that they were in perfect display.

Chloe opened her mouth, then closed it. "You."

Lois snorted in laughter, finally turning to look at the blonde. "I might be human, but I sure as hell ain't _normal_." She held her arms out to her sides and gave a little twirl. "What do you think?"

"I think you'll be using your cleavage to sell more comics than that store has ever sold before." Chloe chuckled, leaning her head against the doorframe.

"That is the aim." Lois admitted with a wicked smile, coming to a stop before making a face. "I'm not going to get used to Withridge though. I don't feel like a Withridge. I _especially_ don't feel like a Lois Brianna Withridge." She anchored her hands on her hips. "And have I mentioned how I don't find it funny that we've taken the identities of the witches who took _our_ identities? I mean, I can get the _irony_, but still..."

"We'd already decided that for it to be harder to be found we'd have to assume new identities, and anyway, Lois Lane is a known name in this universe." Chloe reminded, not too fond of her new identity as Chloe Madelyn Hibbins either.

"Withridge makes me sound like some stuffy british aristocrat." Lois scratched at her arm, obviously uncomfortable.

"Believe me, no one is going to mistake you for a british aristocrat." Chloe's lips twitched with her amusement.

"I feel like I should be insulted, and yet I'm not." Lois shook her head, twirling around to gaze at herself in the mirror once more. "So you actually going to follow through with that stupid manual? When will you have time to read it before actually starting cooking anyway?"

"Read it already." Chloe responded, folding her arms over her chest. "He actually has some interesting facts in it. And you know me and challenges. I need something to keep me from going insane."

"So is that what this whole friendship with him is? A challenge? Something to keep you from going insane?" Lois asked in worry, her gaze meeting her cousin's in the mirror. "I'm mourning what destroying the beacon means...you aren't."

"I process things in a different way." Chloe shied away from that all-too-knowing gaze, staring intently at a plug-in air freshener. "You really shouldn't be late for your first day you know."

Sighing, Lois twirled once more and came towards her, engulfing the smaller woman in a tight hug before pressing a kiss to her cheek. "Knock Dr. Weirdo off his feet."

Chloe hugged back. "Go sell out the whole shop in one day."

"Consider it a given." With a flash of mischievous hazel eyes, Lois grabbed her bag was jacket and was gone, heels clippety clopping against the floor until she closed the door behind her and was gone.

Sighing, feeling incredibly alone all of a sudden, Chloe gazed around her at the empty apartment.

While Lois stress cleaned and stress drank, Chloe cooked whenever she felt she couldn't handle things anymore. It was why this whole thing was perfect. She could challenge herself with Sheldon Cooper's high standards and keep herself busy, her mind off of the thought of never seeing the people she loved the most ever again. Flashes of Clark, Ollie, Bart, Victor, AC…even Dinah and Lana…they were tormenting and taunting. Her mind was still unable to believe that she'd probably never see their faces again, that that rapid farewell was the last time she'd hear their voices or have their arms around her.

If Lois wasn't here...Chloe didn't think she'd be able to stand it.

Taking in a deep breath, the blonde went to bathe.

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"No..." Howard's eyes were wide as he dropped his fork back onto his plate, leaning forwards on their table in the CalTech cafeteria. "You can't be serious."

"No way does Sheldon have a deal, dude." Raj agreed, shaking his head.

"I thought so too but Penny and I have agreed he does." Leonard shared, still smiling ridiculously large, his face hurting him somewhat. "He's human!"

"I fear for what we are becoming as a race if that is so." Howard bemoaned, somewhat pale. "There's no way he's a normal, hot-blooded male. No way. I refuse to believe in any possible universe in which Sheldon Cooper is after some _tail_."

"I have to agree with him." Raj made up his face. "This is all a huge misunderstanding. Sheldon must definitely want something from that girl. But sexy-times can't be it."

"A world where Sheldon procreates..." Howard was dazed, apparently feeling somewhat sick. "Mini Sheldons running all over the place with her blonde hair and his personality!" He shivered, hugging himself as if feeling horribly vulnerable. "I never believed I'd live to see the destruction of mankind!"

"Dude, he does _not_ have a deal." Raj tried to calm his friend down.

"Think what you want, but there is _so_ a deal." Leonard defended.

All along, the object of their conversation was in his office, unaware of how popular a conversation he was between his small group of friends.

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Playing the music up loudly, Chloe wore a tank top and shorts, dancing to the beat as she held the manual in one hand and a cookbook in the other. Some of her favorite bands didn't exist in this world, but she'd found some interesting alternatives which would do just fine as replacements. If there was anything she was, it was adaptable. She had the ability to blend in with those around her, to become a part of whatever group she found herself a part of, and to not only survive but flourish. That was one of the reasons why she was the only one who could pull off this mission. She didn't have a superpower or a superweakness or a superidentity. She was no one. And that would help keep the Kryptonian Crystal safe from Zod.

When Clark had realized that he couldn't trust the man, that his brotherhood had been all a lie-all a game to get Zod his superpowers back-he'd been heartbroken. Chloe hadn't been surprised, she'd expected it and that was why she'd made arrangements to help protect her loved ones when Clark's dreams of a Kryptonian brotherhood fell through, but still her heart had hurt for him because she knew that while Clark loved them they couldn't make up for the Kryptonian piece of him that he'd never truly fill. At least Lana was superpowered and by his side, finally they were able to be true partners and equals. A selfish little part of Chloe resented the finality, the fact that she knew for sure that there was nothing that'd ever come between those two...and that she never really had a chance.

She also wished that Lois hadn't had to go through the same pain. Chloe had seen the way that Clark had started looking at Lois in Lana's absence, but when the love of his whole life returned he'd dropped Lois immediately, seeing only Lana. Lois had pretended that it didn't matter and that she didn't care, but Chloe recognized the pain in those hazel eyes...and while she knew that Lois would have still offered to join her on this trip across worlds even if she'd been with Clark, Chloe knew that her cousin was especially happy to do it because she wouldn't have to see the superhero perfection that were the "Super Duo".

Chloe could understand her, she wasn't too comfortable whenever she'd bump into Jimmy and his new girlfriend Cat Grant, but still it hurt more to see Clark so happy and know she'd never be the cause.

Maybe being stuck in a world where she wouldn't have to watch it would end up being a blessing in disguise. The fact that she so far hadn't met anyone who was her type or had struck her interest sexually was also a good thing. She needed the time to get her life in order, to make some sort of sense of what it'd become, and it was easier to do without attraction making things even messier than they already were. The men she'd met this far were nice, if odd, and Penny was a sweetheart. Those were the type of people she and Lois needed in their lives right now. Nice, normal people with nice, normal problems.

And while Sheldon Cooper was one very odd duck, with his fascinating peculiarities he seemed to promise the distraction she so desperately needed to keep from going insane.

"So, Mister Cooper," she put down the manual and cookbook, taking in a deep breath. "Prepare to be _amazed_."

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The Sheldonator...

The Incredible Sheldon...

Dr. Sheldon the All-Knowing...

In his office, surrounded by his work, Sheldon went through the arduous yet important task of giving himself a superhero name. It was quite shameful on his part that he'd been a card carrying member of the Justice League for so many years and yet he'd never bothered to give himself a heroic alias. If he was to become "bosom buddies" with the Lois Lane and this Chloe, he was going to have to do better than this! He'd researched them, of course, and while there was tons on Lois Lane Chloe was a new addition to the franchise. Apparently she'd just been added into the Superman universe by way of a Jimmy Olsen comic where she played his ex girlfriend and journalist/hacker extraordinaire. Sheldon had never really read Jimmy Olsen's comics (who cared about the sidekicks anyway?) but he'd already made it his priority to go to the comic book store and buy it posthaste.

Also, when he's typed in "Lois Lane" and "Chloe" in the search engine he'd been surprised to find out that people were wondering how exactly close the new Chloe Sullivan character was to Lois Lane and those from Smallville given the fact that she was supposed to be from Smallville as well. Also, when Pete Ross had broken his arm (or was it a leg?) there'd been a "Chloe S" who'd signed the cast, and on a post-it on Lois Lane's desk in the Daily Planet there'd been a reminder that merely said: "Call Chloe".

She was obviously in the universe, even before her appearance in the Jimmy Olsen comic, and Sheldon was _fascinated_ by the fact that her presence had been kept secret for so long.

Why exactly was that?

Who exactly was this Kryptonian Crystal keeping, Brainiac-infused neighbor?

He tingled at the fact of having been in the same apartment as the Crystal of the House of El.

And he'd be in its presence again tonight, having dinner prepared for him by two women affiliated with the Justice League.

It was like coming home.

He needed to call and tell his Meemaw about this...without sharing the whole Justice League connection of course. He _was_ a card-carrying member and needed to start acting like one...and keeping the girls' secret was going to be his first duty as an _active_ Justice League member!

And he didn't deny the little superior thrill it gave him to know he was the only one who was aware of the girls' _alter ego_.

Ooh.

Just the word brought Batman and Superman and all his heroes to mind!

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She'd figured out what she would be preparing based on what exactly they had on hand, and Chloe felt quite confident that she was going to impress everyone with her cooking...even if she had to cook and recook until it was perfect. While this would prove a useful distraction for today, she quickly realized that she'd have to most likely find herself some sort of a job as well or she'd grow insane with restlessness. The thing is that Chloe didn't know exactly what she should do in this world. Journalism was too obvious and she honestly didn't want to do anything that would remind her of her old life, friends, mission. If she was going to integrate herself into this world she wanted to do so as a new person, as Chloe Hibbins.

But who _was_ Chloe Hibbins?

What did she like?

What were her hobbies?

Her past?

Her future?

The blonde groaned, realizing that she needed to know this information and soon. Both she and Lois had come up with an outline of who their characters were supposed to be should they be questioned, but to be believable Chloe needed to _become_ Chloe Hibbins…needed to _feel_ like her. She wasn't sure who Chloe Hibbins was, but she didn't want her to be anything like Chloe Sullivan. If for some reason they were found (and it was always a possibility given the fact that the Crystal was involved) she didn't want to make it too _obvious_ and help the Kandorians find them.

So obviously becoming a famous actress was out of the question.

Her lips quirked in amusement at that, shaking her head.

No, Chloe Hibbins wasn't a _paid_ actress…although her whole life would be spent acting.

So who, and what, was Chloe Hibbins?

She wasn't a member of the Justice League, that was for sure.

And she had no interest in working in a store.

Cooking was only her first choice when she was stressed.

Journalism was way out of the question.

So what believable options were there out there for her?

"Stop stressing yourself out." Chloe whispered to herself, frowning. "You don't have to answer these questions right now. All you have to do at this very second is cook. That's all. Stop getting ahead of yourself."

She turned towards the oven to check on the food…when suddenly a shocked of power erupted from the Crystal and rippled throughout her, images flashing before her in fast procession before she finally found herself laying on the ground, gasping and panting, eyes wide and body trembling.

Oh god…

"_Alia_."

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**TBC**


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